


A Rare Creature...

by posingasme



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Post-Episode: s12e23 All Along the Watchtower
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-30 08:01:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11459406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/posingasme/pseuds/posingasme
Summary: Castiel discovers the apocalyptic world beyond the portal, and he can't help wondering if there might be a second chance waiting there for him to find it.





	A Rare Creature...

This world was...Well, it was Hell. But while that should have horrified him, a thought needled into his brain and refused to let him go. He and his counterpart agreed on their plan, and he sent this world’s Castiel to save the place where Sam and Dean had prevented the Apocalypse. 

Castiel loved his brothers. But he had done for them all he could do, and this other version of himself was as strong as he had ever been. He wished them all well, and hoped he would see them again. But the thought wouldn't release him, and he couldn't leave this place without at least looking. Without at least trying. 

He had already let down Meg in one world. He owed her. 

Perhaps she wouldn't know him, or wouldn't feel the same here. In this place, angels and demons killed one another on sight, as they had for millennia before things got tangled and confused in his world. In truth, this was what both Meg and Castiel were made for. Endless battle among warriors, night and day between the two sides, clear allies and clear enemies. Part of him thrilled with every demon he smote along his way. But it wasn't why he was there. He sought a particular demon, and he wouldn't rest until he had found her. 

The fear that she might be dead in this world too, or would be before he could find her, kept him barreling forward. 

Slowly, he gathered information, about this world, about the factions in it, and he found that things were not so monochromatic as they seemed at first. There were various groupings among the angels, for one thing. The reapers were working tirelessly among the humans, and the armies of Hell followed rival generals. Certainly, there was Lucifer, but he was in near-constant battle with the archangels. 

There was Cain, who led a militia of humans and even a few demons against anyone who attacked human compounds. Cain reveled in the bloodshed, and tore into demons, humans, angels and monsters with equal fervor and pleasure. Castiel was sickened by these stories. Some called Cain a hero, but Castiel knew he was simply mad with the bloodlust that would never end. 

Demons he found and interrogated talked of Prince Dagon, who had killed Lilith herself, and who led her armies against angels without mercy. Her brother Azazel had set it all in motion, and Alistair rode by her side into battle. They were horrors unlike anything else in the world, and were currently terrorizing most of Asia. Dagon’s was the faction full of zealots, who believed in Lucifer's birthright to rule Hell, Earth and Heaven. 

Crowley led Ramiel’s demons, and he was said to have a battalion of hellhounds which went with him into every battle. Demons never seemed to like Crowley, but they all confessed that he was the strategist who had taken most of the continent of Europe, and was facing Naomi’s garrison in the Mediterranean. 

The monsters had come together to some degree, rallying around their respective alphas as much as possible. The vampires defended a compound full of humans, in exchange for their willing blood donation, and otherwise kept out of the battles unless attacked directly. The shifters, werewolves and skinwalkers had an alliance, and kept their own compound fortified. They traded angel blades and other weapons for food and supplies among humans and other monsters, and so dogs could always be found scavenging for such valuables after battles. Many other creatures simply fell off the map, either eradicated or gone into hiding. Very few chose to ally with Heaven or with Hell. 

The Men of Letters all around the world had made an uneasy pact with a coven run by one Rowena McLeod, who had joined forces with a witch named Sinclair Cuthbert who had once been a Man of Letters himself. Together, they would survive this end of times, and then figure out what to do about one another. 

Abaddon, the Knight, was the lethal general who commanded the deadliest but smallest pack of demons. They fought for the love of fighting, not unlike Cain, except that they served a cause. When Castiel heard that, he knew just where to look for his beloved demon warrior. 

Ducking angels and demons and creatures, some of whom he had only ever seen in Purgatory, and healing and helping humans as he could, Castiel finally worked his way to the front line. Abaddon’s combatants were facing off against Bartholomew's small faction of soldiers. There was a break in the fighting while both sides licked their wounds, and Castiel took advantage of that small window. 

He closed his eyes, and focused all his grace on his warrior queen, his caretaker, his thorny beauty. He had to be close enough to feel her by now. Surely he wasn't wrong about who Meg would follow into battle? Surely he wasn't too late?

But there came a tiny pinch at the edge of his grace, and he smiled and reopened his eyes. “Meg,” he sighed. 

He stalked toward the angels’ fortification of a large, burned out warehouse once owned by Roman Industries. He followed his grace and his heart, until he found himself outside a door guarded by two angels in suits. 

“Captain!” one blurted out in surprise. “You're here!”

“I am,” he said cautiously. “What are you hiding in here?”

“Demon prisoner. Pretty high up in Abaddon’s ranks. Batholomew is deciding whether or not to trade her or kill her.”

“Trade her?”

“For Zachariah.” The two angels shrugged. “He's not much of a fighter, but he's top management, you know?”

Castiel ground his vessel’s teeth. “Yes. Well, I'll be taking over from here, brothers.”

They looked at one another. “You-you are?”

He took a breath. “Hozai, right? And Jofiel?”

They smiled. “Yes, brother,” they said together. 

“I'm certain that Bartholomew has been doing excellent work here. I've simply been assigned to move a valuable prisoner. It must be the one you've got here.”

“She's the only one we have.”

“Right. Bartholomew has already been briefed on the transfer. As I said, I'll take it from here.”

They nodded. “Of course, Captain. Will they be trading her for Zachariah?”

He heard the tone of disapproval in Hozai’s voice, and he smirked. “It is never good to allow the enemy to get hold of top management. On the other hand...it's Zachariah.”

The two angels snorted, then composed themselves. “Yes, Captain.”

“Be safe, brothers. And tell no one I was here. Those who need to know already do, and are under orders to not reveal that they do. You are expected to feign ignorance as well. Am I understood?”

“Of course, brother.”

He nodded, and touched them each on their shoulders. Then he entered the room and closed the door behind him. 

It was a delight to learn that he could use his wings in this world. And he made himself grab hold of the demon sitting in the chair, and blink away to safety, before he allowed himself to truly look at her. There was no time to be nostalgic until they were safe. 

They were in the mountains now, in a place where he felt no forced clashing anywhere nearby. There was a lake, and trees all around, and he was glad he had chosen such a beautiful, peaceful place for their reunion. 

“Hands off of me, halo!”

Castiel smiled happily. That was definitely his defiant Meg. He yanked a cover off of her eyes, and indulged in a long look while she blinked in disorientation. 

“What-Where am I?”

“My caretaker,” he breathed. 

She turned toward him and stared. “Clarence?”

He still didn't know why she called him that. But to learn that she not only knew him in this world, but had the same pet name for him, filled his heart. “Meg, are you hurt?”

A slow smile came over her now, lighting the beautiful face he had missed so badly. “Shut up.” 

She was hurt, and he couldn't heal wounds on a demon, but he would care for her. Just as she had watched over him in a land far, far away, he would watch over her. “Meg, I don't know what you know of me. But I love you. I have wanted to say so for too long.”

Meg watched him. “You're not Castiel.” 

He took a deep breath. “I am. I'm not the Castiel of this world, but of one nearby. In my world…” Blue eyes closed in a flinch. “In my world, I failed to protect my Meg, and she sacrificed herself for me and my friends. She was killed by the King of Hell, Crowley.”

She listened to all of this, then snorted at the end. “Crowley? The crossroads general? There's a world out there where he's the king?”

“So you believe me.” He was a little surprised. He wasn't certain he would have believed so easily. 

Meg gave him a shrug. “You're Castiel. But you're not. He's never been the romantic type.”

Castiel lowered his eyes. “I'm not very practiced…”

Then her hand, strong but soft, was on his cheek. “No. I mean...you're Castiel. But better. Because the one I know? He doesn't give a damn about me. He's a righteous bastard. And I love him. And he doesn't care.”

A tiny intake of breath was all he could manage. Tears burned his eyes and filled his throat. 

Meg smirked at him. “Yeah. And I've never known him to be speechless.”

Castiel cleared his throat as well as he could. “Meg, I'm sorry there's a world in which I don't know to adore you. And I'm sorry there's a world in which I was too distracted by my mission to protect you from that angel blade. Please. Let me make it up to you. I'll spend eternity doing so, if you'll only let me.”

“I'm a demon, Clarence. You've pointed that out every time we've been together. I'm unclean. I'm wicked. And I taint you.”

He surged forward to wrap her in his arms. “No,” he breathed. “No, you give me strength and courage, and you care for me without rest. You're my thorny beauty.”

She laughed at that. “Put up or shut up.”

“Will you put up with me?”

This only made her laugh more. “Yeah. Yeah, Cas, I'd like that.”

He frowned suddenly. “You won't be compelled to rejoin the war? Where we are now...it will never come to us. But you could choose to go back to it.”

The softness was back, as she caressed his stubbled cheek. “Clarence, when this war started, I thought I knew what we were fighting for. I thought we were going to Heaven. But we've been at war for ages now, and I don't think we've gained any ground nor lost any, and most of the generals are just out to destroy with no clear objectives. I can't live that way, not if I've got another option. Not if you're a choice.”

Hope filled his chest, and he held her against his chest. 

“I've learned one thing in this world, Clarence, just one, pretty much. Find a cause, and serve it. I thought Lucifer was my cause, and I thought Abaddon was my way of serving it. But I'm tired, and I don't see any end in sight. What I do see is an angel delusional enough to give me a new cause, and I'm not stupid. I'll take it.”

“Thank you, Meg,” he breathed. “Thank you.”

“I told you when I first met you. We’re going to Heaven, Clarence. Well? Here we are.”

Castiel knew in his heart he had never been so happy, nor so blessed as by this demon’s love. He took hold of her, his hands in her hair, and he bent to kiss her the way he had all those years-eons!-ago. 

Meg stared up at him as they parted. “What was that?” she said with a slow grin. 

“I learned that from the pizza man,” he admitted. 

The brilliance beaming from her face nearly knocked him to his knees. “I think I'm ready to order some pizza.”

Castiel sighed happily. He knew exactly what that meant.

**Author's Note:**

> Once upon a time, I got a prompt on Tumblr for a Megstiel kiss. Hope it was worth the wait. Comments are unicorns, and I love them dearly. 
> 
> ~Posing


End file.
